Love, Aria

Five Years Later

Five Years Later

    "My oh my, that ring is blinding."

Well, he isn't wrong, I thought to myself as I turned around to address whoever had been speaking. Having dated the brother of my brother's old college roommate for the past four years, it was a great change for me to actually be engaged to him.

I was currently standing in line at the grocery store, buying the weekly groceries for Lindsey and I. My wedding was scheduled for two weeks from now, and Lindsey was set to marry Jaime in a month. It was strange that my best friend and I would no longer be roommates, as we had been for the past year since graduating from the University of Maryland. Our two-bedroom apartment was pretty spacious for the two of us, and when Leslie had moved out two months ago after marrying someone she met at James Madison University, it seemed to grow even larger.

I turned to see who was standing in line behind me, and had to look up to see the person's face, as they were easily half a foot taller than me. I squinted for a second, knowing that the face was familiar, before my eyes widened and I clapped my hand over my mouth.

"Brenden?"

He looked so different. His hair was the same color, but the cut was vastly different; the last time I had seen him, he had a very 2010-Justin-Bieber-style 'do going, but he had cut that off now in favor of a shorter, Chandler-Bing-in-the-fourth-season-of-Friends style. He seemed to have grown even taller since the last time I saw him, and I realized that the past five years had treated him well. He was tan and fit, and there was nothing about him that would make the previous girlfriend in me think "Ha, I'm doing so much better."

Except for the lack of a ring on his left hand.

"Yeah, it's me." He grinned, motioning for me to move up as the line moved. "Fancy seeing you here."

"This is Virginia. You know, where I've lived for most of my life?" I replied, laughing. "What are you doing here? It's great to see you."

"You too." He nodded, "I'm here for a job interview. It's supposed to pay well and have great benefits. I need to stock up the hotel room though, so that would be why I'm here, at the supermarket."

I rolled my eyes.

"No one says supermarket anymore, and I think I remember telling you that five years ago."

Brenden laughed.

"I'm sure you did." He took my left hand to bring the ring up to his eye level. "So who's the millionaire?"

"His name is Jason Menck, and he is not a millionaire, he's just good at saving money for important things." I replied. "He's actually in law school right now, so we're also going to have to pay that off in the future."

"Menck..." Brenden rolled the name around, "As in, Connor's old college roommate?"

"No, that was Dan Menck. Jason happens to be his younger brother."

"Small world around here." Brenden nodded. "When's the big day?"

"Two weeks from tomorrow."
He nodded.

"That's great, Ar. I'm really happy for you."

"Thank you." I nodded. "I appreciate it."

We fell into an uncomfortable silence and I wished that Jason would hurry up; he was getting meat from the deli department for his own apartment, and had promised to meet me in line when he was done.

"So, any news in your love life?" I asked, figuring that it was the polite thing to do.

Brenden shook his head.